Spirituality in Art

¶ … Artists express feelings, thoughts, and images within their art. Sometimes they show more than that and paint their spirit on canvas. Spirituality was an important aspect of identity for many throughout the centuries and millennia. In modern times, artists like Georges Braque and Wassily Kandinsky wished to showcase the essence of the intangible by illustrating it through unique patterns and shapes. During the Renaissance period, and during the Baroque period, artists demonstrated their beliefs and spirituality through a realistic fashion, depicting images of the Last Supper and the Passion of Christ. Ancient Greece showed gods and goddesses, demonstrating their devotion to their faith.

Religion plays an important part to most people's spirituality. Therefore, art showcasing spirituality often times highlights religious images. These images can offer expressions of the divine and of the fears and hopes of artists in their respective time periods. Religion and art appear to go hand-in-hand in many traditional cultures with arts having contributed to the transmission of core cultural beliefs and values. Greek art connected spirituality through expression of gods and goddesses as humans, an example of humanism. A classic example of this is the statue of Hermes carrying Infant Dionysos.

Dionysus or Bacchus has a cult following in Ancient Greece. The Initiation of Rites of the Cult of Bacchus at the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii is a wall painting that gives an excellent view of Roman culture before the time of Christ. Such ornate, rich, elaborate, almost decadent details gave clues into how the Romans saw spiritual life, with refinement and purpose. Many Roman murals depict ornate scenes that show what Romans believed in and what they indulged in to awake spiritual delights.

Another ancient civilization that used art to show images of their religion and spirituality are the Egyptians. The art of the Ancient Egyptians radiated the significant of a person's inner-being. The Judgement before Osiris and Dynasty 18 hand mirror offer excellent means of comparison between the range of spiritual expression the Ancient Egyptians possessed. Their ability to convey art through using the senses, provides some of the most vivid works seen in the ancient world.

The Panel from Pitsa an example of Ancient Greek art, is a small wooden panel the artist painted in tempera. It is a rare and well done example of miniature paintings from Archaic Corinthians. The image depicts a sacrifice and procession that consists of one man, three women, and three children. The number three represents a symbol of spirituality in the painting with the one being the man. (Odysseus.culture.gr) One child holds the sacrifice while the other two children hold musical instruments. The painting was located within a sanctuary of the Nymphs and reflects the need for tradition and order in Greek religion as well as the importance of sacrifice.